This tactile plate is a physical relief map based on the intensity of optical & X-ray data, showing the galaxy Messier 83 (or M83), a spiral structure viewed straight on. At the center is a raised pool of light. From that light, spiral arms corkscrew out in wide, sweeping arches. The galaxy is covered in a haze, and flecked with many dots.

One of the tiny dots to the lower right of center is highlighted by a raised circle. This is one of the supernova remnants within M83 being considered by researchers.

Over a 14-year period from 2000 to 2014, astronomers pointed NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory at the M83 galaxy. They discovered that about half of the X-ray sources believed to be supernova remnants, the aftermath of stellar explosions, were exhibiting unexpected and dramatic changes in brightness. These sources appear as bright blobs with glowing cores that noticeably change in shape, intensity, and brightness over months or years.

The most likely explanation for these changes in brightness is that the team has uncovered a population of stellar survivors, stars that lived through an orbiting partner’s destruction in a supernova explosion. Material is being pulled from the surviving star onto the black hole or neutron star that formed in the supernova, a process known to cause rapid changes in X-ray brightness.

This tactile plate is a physical relief map based on the intensity of optical & X-ray data, showing the galaxy Messier 83 (or M83), a spiral structure viewed straight on. At the center is a raised pool of light. From that light, spiral arms corkscrew out in wide, sweeping arches. The galaxy is covered in a haze, and flecked with many dots.